The Army Comrades' Association
was established in Ireland in February 1932. The organisation soon
became known as Blueshirts. In July 1933, Eoin
O'Duffy, became leader of the Blueshirts. O'Duffy renamed the
movement the National Guard. He also organized marches, flags, salutes
("Hail O'Duffy) based on those in Nazi
Germany. This led to fighting in the streets between the National
Guard and left-wing groups. In August 1933 the government banned the
National Guard from marching to Leinster Lawn.
On the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War O'Duffy began recruiting
volunteers to go and fight in the war. Supported by the Catholic Church
in Ireland and by right-wing national newspapers, O'Duffy and the
first volunteers left travelled from Dublin
on 13th November, 1936. It has been argued that the men who went to
Spain were mainly motivated by a desire
to defend the Catholic Church in Spain.
An estimated 750 Blueshirts
fought with the Nationalist
Army during the
war. The Irish volunteers became part of the XV Bandera Irlandesa
del Terico of the Spanish Foreign Legion. The Blueshirts
suffered heavy losses at Jarama in February
1937.
On his return to Ireland
in 1938 Eoin O'Duffy published his book,
Crusade in Spain. O'Duffy continued
to advocate fascist policies and during the Second
World War he had negotiations with politicians in Germany
about the possibility of persuading the Irish
Republican Army of undertaking a policy of sabotage against Britain.
(1)
John Quinn, interviewed in the North Belfast News (20th October
2001)
The one thing that upsets me about the history that is written about
the Irish men who fought in the Spanish Civil War is that it tends
to misrepresent the ideals and beliefs which led so many of these
men to fight, on both sides.
Many people mistakenly
believe that everyone who joined Eoin O'Duffy was a fascist, some
may have been, but the vast majority of those who did fight for Franco
had no interest in fascism and were more traditional Catholics. This
book (Spanish Civil War: The Untold Misery) will show that many of
the men who joined Eoin O'Duffy, especially from Belfast, did so because
of the fact that they were devout Catholics and as a consequence did
what the church told them to do, but also they went to fight because
of the unique relationship they had with O'Duffy himself.
Whatever O'Duffy's faults
he obviously made an impression on a number of his old IRA comrades
and when 1936 came around some joined him on the boat to Spain.
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